dpa international (Englischer Dienst), Germany Tuesday 2:18 PM GMT Armenia's political crisis explained: What comes next? by Peter Spinella in Moscow Moscow (dpa) - Representatives of the country's leadership and political opposition are expected to meet for negotiations, including the prospect of snap elections, after the prime minister resigned in less than a week. Armenia's prime minister, Serzh Sargsyan, tendered his resignation this week after a series of protests against his rule. Q: Why did he resign? A: Sargsyan, 63, was president of the former Soviet republic for a decade until he reached his term limit this year. He was out of power for a week and a half before parliament appointed him prime minister this month. As Sargsyan promoted his candidacy and then became prime minister, Armenia's capital, Yerevan, was jolted by several days of protests. "Sargsyan was not an oppressive leader," said Simon Saradzhyan, an international affairs expert at Harvard's Belfer Center. "When he realized that one of the likely alternatives to his resignation is bloodshed, he stepped down," Saradzhyan told dpa. Q: What does the political opposition demand? A: Opposition politicians, led by parliament member Nikol Pashinyan, had called for Sargsyan to be ousted and snap elections to be held. Representatives of the country's leadership and opposition are expected to meet on Wednesday for negotiations. The government is likely to offer partial concessions in an effort to divide the protest movement, said Mikael Zolyan, a political analyst at the Regional Studies Center think tank in Yerevan. "The opposition will keep up the pressure," Zolyan told dpa. "I suspect continued protests." Q: How had the prime minister's powers been increased? A: Armenia held a national referendum two-and-a-half years ago to strengthen the authority of the prime minister, directly appointed by parliament. The political system was thus to be changed from semi-presidential to a parliamentary republic. The referendum, firmly backed by the dominant Republican Party of Armenia, passed amid allegations of vote tampering. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which independently monitored the vote, had cited in its report "widespread irregularities, interference and intimidation in the voting and counting process throughout the country." Q: What's next? A: Whether the political opposition will be appeased largely depends on who the next prime minister will be. Currently, the previous prime minister, Karen Karapetyan, has resumed the post for the interim. "The Republican Party controls the majority of seats in parliament, so while there's a significant change, it is not revolutionary," said international affairs expert Saradzhyan. "I hope whoever ends up running the country realizes that there's deep discontent among the public with socio-economic ills, corruption, etc," he said.